GrantCreekPrairieRestorationNEPASOW.rtf

STATEMENT OF WORK

Grant Creek Native Habitat Restoration Environmental Analysis

Background: Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie was created by Congress in 1996 from land formerly used by Joliet Army Ammunition Plant. The legislation (Illinois Land Conservation Act) identified the purposes of Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie (MNP) as: 1) To manage the land and water resources of the MNP in a manner that will conserve and enhance the native populations and habitats of fish, wildlife, and plants. 2) To provide opportunities for scientific, environmental, and land use education and research. 3) To allow the continuation of agricultural uses of lands within the MNP consistent with section 2915(b). 4) To provide a variety of recreation opportunities that are not inconsistent with the preceding purposes.

The Midewin Prairie Plan identified the desired future conditions for Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. Large portions of Midewin are to be restored to native habitats. Portions of the Grant Creek project area are identified as upland prairie and wet prairie/sedge meadow restorations. Another portion of the project area was in Department of Defense (Army) ownership at the time of the development of the Prairie Plan. The Prairie Plan states that lands transferred from the Department of Defense will be managed in accordance with the Prairie Plan. These new transfers in the project area will be restored to prairie and wetlands just as the surrounding areas previously transferred.

The MNP is proposing to restore native habitats and processes to up to 733 acres of land that were formerly grazed pastures. This restoration project would connect existing high quality native and restored prairie and wetlands meeting the intent of the enabling legislation and Prairie Plan. Additionally, this project would start to meet the unfragmented grassland habitat goals outlined in the Prairie Plan. There are federal and state listed species along with Regional Forester Sensitive plant and animal species within the project area that could be impacted. Although there is wide spread support for implementing the legislation and Prairie Plan, there may be opposition to habitat restoration by archery deer hunters. Their concern is that habitat restoration in these areas may change the hunting techniques (tree stands to ground stalking).

Objective: The proposal involves restoration of native habitat on a 576 acre area along and including Grant Creek, plus an additional 157 acres south of the Drummond Floodplain restoration area. Possible restoration activities would include: invasive species control (herbaceous, shrub and tree plant species), removal of field drain tiles, removal of old road beds and soil piles, filling of man-made depressions with soil, riparian restoration and planting appropriate seeds and plants. In keeping with the Prairie Plan, one alternative would restore native habitats according to the plan. Newly transferred areas within the project area would be restored based upon the soils, i.e. wetlands would be restored on wetland soils. Based on previous projects, sensitive plant and animal species may be an important environmental issue. Real and perceived impacts on white-tailed deer hunters and deer habitat may also be important. Therefore, alternatives addressing these issues may be reasonable. The contractor will use public comments obtained by the Forest Service to identify issues and the final range of reasonable alternatives to be considered in the analysis. Other environmental effects may also be discussed, in order to provide a basic level of disclosure necessary for an adequate NEPA analysis.

Applicable Documents: The analysis must meet Council of Environmental Quality and Forest Service requirements established in 40 CFR 1500 and 36 CFR 220. Forest Service Handbook (FSH) 1909.15 provides additional guidance on meeting these requirements. The proposal implements the Midewin Prairie Plan (2002), and actions and mitigations included in the proposal and alternatives must be consistent with the Plan standards and guidelines. The proposal also implements the Illinois Land Conservation Act and must be consistent with the goals identified in the legislation. In assessing effects to wildlife, the analysis must consider terms and conditions set forth in the Biological Opinion for the Plan. Heritage surveys undertaken to support the analysis must conform to the requirements of the with the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office. The published analysis document must meet Forest Service standards described in FSH 1609.11, Chapters 15-18.

SPECIFIC TASKS: The following tasks must be performed under general Government supervision:

Analyze content of scoping comments and prepare a written summary.

Based on the scoping comments, identify environmental issues and a range of reasonable alternatives resolving conflicts regarding uses of available resources.

Obtain Forest Service approval for issues and alternatives Conduct field, database and literature reviews (data collection) to support the analysis of environmental effects.

Prepare resource reports that synthesize the results of data collection and analyze the effects of the proposed action and alternatives on ecological (vegetation, invasive plants, wildlife threatened, endangered, and sensitive plant and animal species, soils, water quality, air quality and management indicators), economic and social resources (recreation and scenery management and heritage resources) of the project and vicinity.

Integrate the environmental issues and collected data into an environmental assessment (a concise public document that serves to briefly provide sufficient evidence and analysis for determining whether to prepare an environmental impact statement or a finding of no significant impact).

Obtain Forest Service approval of the environmental assessment.

Analyze public comments on the environmental assessment, prepare a response, and modify the environmental assessment if necessary to respond to public comments.

Obtain Forest Service approval of the response to comments and final environmental assessment.

Collect, organize and index a record of all information used in the preparation of the environmental assessment and biological evaluation.

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS:

Resource reports, containing detailed analyses by qualified professionals, regarding the effects of the proposal and any alternatives on the ecological, social and economic resources of the project and vicinity. Resource reports must be complete at the time the final environmental assessment is submitted.

Environmental assessment. The assessment is due 60 days following the final scoping comments. The Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) will review and the assessment and request any necessary changes within 15 days following receipt of the EA. If changes are necessary, the contractor will provide a revised assessment within 30 days.

Response to public comments on environmental assessment. Due 30 days from the 30 day public comment period. The Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) will review the response and request any necessary changes within 15 days of receipt of the public comments. If changes are necessary, the contractor will provide a corrected report within 15 days.

The final environmental assessment (including any modifications responding to public comments), and an electronic copy of the project record (including the scoping report, resource reports, and response to comments), must be submitted to the Contracting Officer’s Representative at the address below within 300 days of the contract start date.

All reports and project record material must be submitted on CD or DVD in formats readable on Microsoft Windows XP operating systems, using Microsoft Office, Adobe PDF, or ArcGIS data formats. All maps within the report must also be in ArcGIS data format.

The COR receives, inspects and accepts the environmental assessment, all resource reports, data, and the project record. Reports prepared by the contractor shall not be released for publication or dissemination without the COR’s written approval.

Qualification Requirements:

The contractor selected for this work must have specific experience in environmental effects analyses of native habitat restoration and related land-management proposals, as evidenced by prior published environmental analyses. Analysts preparing resource reports must have a mix of education and experience equivalent to Federal GS-11 requirements for their job duties (typically, a Master’s Degree in their field, or a Bachelor’s Degree with at least two years of experience).

PLACE AND PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE, WORK DAYS, AND TRAVEL:

a. Place of Performance: Except for field surveys listed in paragraph b. below, and travel listed in paragraph d. below, all work will be at the contractor’s location.

b. Period of Performance: The period of performance shall be from the date of the signed contract to 300 calendar days after issuance of a Notice to Proceed.

c. Work Days: Performance will require an estimated 90 days each by a Principal Investigator and a Writer/Editor, 45 days each by a Wildlife Biologist, Botanist, Archaeologist and Hydrologist, 5 days by an Archaeologist, and 30 days each by a Biological Technician, and clerical assistant.

d. Estimated Travel: The following trips are estimated: Four 3-day trips to the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie by the Principal Investigator and other resource professionals (e.g. Wildlife Biologist; not all professionals may be required on all trips); one 10-day field survey within the project area by the Wildlife Biologist and/or other resource personnel.

PROJECT MATERIALS AND GOVERNMENT-FURNISHED EQUIPMENT:

The contractor is expected to provide all software and equipment necessary for performance of the contract. Upon awarding the contract, the Forest Service will provide existing data in its files for use in the project. These include Geographic Information System data in ArcGIS format, with supporting data tables, showing the project area, existing, known location of threatened, endangered and sensitive plant and animal species, known locations of heritage sites, soil types, native vegetation areas, known wetlands, field tile survey, and watershed condition.

The Forest Service will conduct the scoping required by 36 CFR 220.4(e) and public notice and comment as required by 36 CFR 215.5&6. The comments resulting from these public involvement actions will be provided to the contractor for consideration in the analysis.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS:

The project will be divided into the following phases and tasks. The technical requirements for each phase are established by the referenced regulations and Forest Service policy:

I. Analysis of scoping information: The contractor will perform an interdisciplinary analysis of scoping information gathered by the Forest Service and prepare a written report. The analysis and report will identify the range of actions, alternatives and effects to be considered in the Environmental Assessment (see 40 CFR 1508.25). The Forest Service will approve the final range of actions, alternatives and effects to be considered.

II. Data collection and analysis: The contractor will gather and analyze available data concerning the environmental, social and economic effects of the approved actions, alternatives and effects. Relevant data in Forest Service files will be provided to the contractor (for example, results of previous surveys of the project area, resource location data, etc.). The contractor will gather and synthesize data available from other sources (for example, libraries, state and Federal agencies, journals, etc.). The contractor will also collect and analyze data from field surveys (for example, botany, heritage, etc.). The results will be synthesized in topical resource reports, that is, reports describing the effects of the proposed action and alternatives on specific issues or resources (for example, sensitive plants and animals, heritage resources, water quality).

The effects disclosure will conform to the judicial “hard look” doctrine. That is, assumptions will be spelled out, methods will be disclosed, inconsistencies in the data or results will be explained, contradictory evidence will be evaluated, references will be solidly grounded and conclusions will be supported. All data and analyses will be placed in the project record. Newly-collected data will be provided to the Forest Service in a format compatible with existing Forest Service information systems (for example, ArcGIS format, etc.).

III. Environmental Assessment: Based on the data and specialist reports, the contractor shall prepare an Environmental Assessment (EA) meeting the requirements of 40 CFR 1508.9. As the EA consists of brief discussions of purpose and need, alternatives and environmental effects, the EA shall provide explicit references to specialist reports and other project record materials that support the summaries and conclusions of the Assessment. The Forest Service will approve the environmental assessment prior to circulating it for public comment.

IV. Response to comments: Following Forest Service circulation of the EA for public comment (36 CFR 215.5&6), the contractor will prepare a content analysis and response to the public comments. The response shall adopt the approach outlined for Environmental Impact Statements in 40 CFR 1503.4(a), and shall occur in consultation with the Forest Service. The EA may be modified as part of the process of responding to public comments.

V. Record finalization and delivery: Upon Forest Service approval of the response to comments and any modifications to the EA, the contractor will finalize the project record (complete the collection, organization and indexing of all information used in the preparation of the environmental assessment) and submit the final record to the Forest Service. The electronic project record, consisting of CDs or DVDs, shall be presented to the COR, Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, 30239 South State Route 53, Wilmington, IL 60559. The record shall include the scoping comment analysis, resource reports, environmental assessment, response to comments, and all other reports and data used to prepare the assessment. Reports and data shall be delivered in formats readable on Windows XP operating systems, using Microsoft Office file formats (for reports and data original to this project) or Adobe PDF (for reports, journal articles, etc. not original to this project).

CONTRACTING OFFICER’S REPRESENTATIVE:

Name: William Glass Unit: Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie Street Address: 30239 South State Route 53 City, State: Wilmington, IL 60559 E-Mail: wglass@fs.fed.us Phone: 815-423-2129 FAX: 815-423-6376

EVALUATION FOR SELECTING CONTRACTOR:

Organizational and Management Capabilities and Qualifications

RECOMMENDED SOURCE(S):

John Larson Applied Ecological Services, Inc 17921 Smith Road Brodhead, WI 53529 john@appliedeco.com Phone: 608-897-8641

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Eubanks & Associates, Inc.

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Jack Pizzo Pizzo Associates, Ltd.

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